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Bhubaneswar: The Centre has now pulled up the Odisha government for its dillydallying attitude in providing farmers’ list for implementation of Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) Yojana.
In a letter, the Union Government has asked the State government to provide the beneficiary list by July 15 or else the farmers will be deprived of the benefits of the scheme.
This has now provided fodder to major opposition parties including BJP and Congress to train their guns on the ruling Biju Janata Dal (BJD).
Though initially the Centre had targeted to provide income support to small and marginal farmer families under the PM-KISAN, it has now taken a decision to extend the purview of the scheme to all farmers irrespective of the size of their landholding.
"CM Naveen will not have to face problems as it is the farmer who is affected. It is really unfortunate that at a time when the Centre is releasing funds, Odisha government is not providing the list of beneficiaries," said Congress MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati.
BJP general secretary Prithviraj Harichandan said, "Odisha government has no data as so far it has extended all benefits on party affiliation basis."
Odisha Agriculture minister Arun Sahoo, on the other hand, claimed that the State government has already provided a list of nearly 18 lakh farmers. As the Centre has sought a list of large farmers, there has been a delay in submission of the data, he added.
"We are collecting data about large farmers and will soon upload it on the portal. Odisha government will extend support to Centre in implementation of PM-KISAN Yojana for the benefit of farmers," said Sahoo.
Earlier, Odisha government had patted its own back by claiming to have included 50 lakh farmers under its own KALIA Scheme. However, the ground reality seems to be totally different.
Meet Shatrughan Lenka, a farmer from Kaptipada block in Mayurbhanj district. Be it the PM-KISAN or Odisha government’s KALIA scheme, Lenka has not got any assistance so far.
"PM had announced a financial assistance of Rs 6,000 under PM-KISAN scheme. But not only PM-KISAN, we have not got any assistance even under the KALIA scheme," said Lenka.
Not only Lenka, over 100 farmers of the Kukurjhima village are also a deprived lot.
" Naveen Patnaik had announced to release assistance soon after taking oath as CM for the fifth time under KALIA scheme, but we are still waiting for the assistance," said Prashant Nayak, a farmer from Ganjam.
As per reports, there was a target to include over 46 lakh farmers from Odisha under the Centre’s PM-KISAN Yojana. As per the list provided to Centre, 9,62,115 farmers in Odisha received assistance in first phase while the benefits of PM-KISAN were extended to 7,99,293 farmers in the second instalment.
